Miami Marathon is on! As many people sit around indoors in the freezing winter chill, hardbodies are running through sunny South Beach for the Miami Marathon. Thousands of runners and walkers gathered in Downtown Miami this morning for the ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon.

The Miami Marathon started just before dawn broke. According to CBS, the Miami Marathon race course starts at the American Airlines Arena, travel north through Miami Beach, Downtown Miami, Coconut Grove, Little Havana and Coral Gables. The Miami Marathon finishes downtown at Bayfront Park.

There are 17,000 runners who are expected to participate in the eighth annual Miami Marathon. Streets will be closed to traffic to accommodate the runners and walkers in the Miami Marathon. There is no northbound traffic on Biscayne Blvd and traffic on Brickell Avenue traveling north will be directed to Brickell Bridge. Roads should be reopened by noon.

We’ll be watching for the winner of the Miami Marathon. Good luck to everyone!

A freelance writer with a passion for life. Empathetic, exciting, eclectic, elegant, quiet, knowledgeable, a good listener, go to the beat of my own drummer.The author of "Mastication on the Beach," a compilation of poems inspired by Gather group